Chocolate-covered bacon? Yep, the state fair is back in town

Pity those humorless souls who deride state fairs as carnivals for the overweight and undercultured, the simple and the soft. • Weep for them, for they will never know the exquisite joys of chocolate-dipped bacon. • Yes, the Florida State Fair returned to Tampa on Thursday, and with it came a new slate of exotic food fare on sticks, in bags and deep-fried. Here are three of this year's best. — Jay Cridlin cridlin@tampabay.com

Chocolate-dipped bacon

If, for some strange reason, the thought of pig meat slathered in fudge doesn't give your stomach a tingle, then get with the times, man. In January, Time wrote about the proliferation of bacony delights on dessert menus in fine restaurants nationwide. Bacon ice cream has even popped up on Top Chef. Mark Boggs of Plant City saw chocolate-dipped bacon at another fair up north and tinkered in the kitchen with some recipes. He decided that freshly grilled Hormel applewood-smoked bacon worked best; for $5, you get four slabs with a cup of syrupy chocolate dipping sauce. Don't let the concept scare you — there is no meaty aftertaste, only a salty-meets-sweet flavor delivered via the peerless crisp-yet-chewy texture of bacon. Find it at Mavric's Chocolate Barn near Gate 2.

The Tornado Potato

It has hands-down the best name of any new fair food, but what exactly is it? Picture spiral-cut potato chips on a stick, and you'll get an idea. One of the few fair foods you can buy in bulk — they cost $3 apiece, 2 for $5 or 5 for $10 — they're hand-ground in a newfangled potato slicer, carefully speared on a stick and dropped into the fryer. Dust 'em with seasoning (barbecue, jalepeno, cajun or sour cream and chives) or drench 'em in ketchup or nacho cheese, and you've got yourself a crisp little snack. Words of the wise: The Tornado Potato can get messy, so it's best to eat yours sitting down, or at least with two hands. This is, after all, the state fair. Try to show a little class. You can get them in a booth near the paintball tent near Gate 4.

Deep-fried green beans

Another big-city export, deep-fried green beans come to the Florida State Fair thanks to Bill Lauther of Brandon, who encountered them on a menu in New York. His mind started clicking, and as soon as he returned home, he bought a bag of frozen green beans from Wal-Mart and started experimenting. His stand, Griff's Catering, already sold fried cauliflower, fried broccoli and fried pickle slices, but he decided that with a little ranch dressing, the beans ($5 per basket) are just as good. "The thing is getting people to try 'em," Lauther said. "They taste like French fries to me." Indeed they do — warm, crisp, unmistakably Southern and, while not exactly health food, certainly better for you than a deep-fried Twinkie. Griff's Catering is along the lake, near Kiddie Land.

Is chocolate good for you? Flavanoids in cocoa may protect the heart, but don't overdo it

Recent research shows that chocolate can provide natural health-promoting substances called flavonoids.

Since flavonoids seem to help prevent heart disease and cancer, the idea of eating chocolate sounds like a tempting and delicious way to better your health. The complete message is, however, that although chocolate might be preferable to other treats, it is no substitute for vegetables and fruits, which also contain flavonoids.

The flavonoids in chocolate that laboratory studies demonstrate to have powerful antioxidant effects are called flavanols and procyanidins. These two compounds come from the flavonoid “family” that includes resveratrol, found in grape juice, and EGCG, found in green tea. When people consume these substances in chocolate and cocoa, the antioxidant status of their blood increases. Recent research shows that chocolate can provide natural health-promoting substances called flavonoids.

Since flavonoids seem to help prevent heart disease and cancer, the idea of eating chocolate sounds like a tempting and delicious way to better your health. The complete message is, however, that although chocolate might be preferable to other treats, it is no substitute for vegetables and fruits, which also contain flavonoids.

The flavonoids in chocolate that laboratory studies demonstrate to have powerful antioxidant effects are called flavanols and procyanidins. These two compounds come from the flavonoid “family” that includes resveratrol, found in grape juice, and EGCG, found in green tea. When people consume these substances in chocolate and cocoa, the antioxidant status of their blood increases.

Chocolate 'has health benefits'

An antioxidant in dark chocolate makes it good for you, experts say

Eating dark chocolate could help control diabetes and blood pressure, Italian experts say.

Researchers found eating 100g of dark chocolate each day for 15 days lowered blood pressure in the 15 person-study.

The University of L'Aquila team also found the body's ability to metabolise sugar - a problem for people with diabetes - was improved.

But eating the same quantities of white chocolate did not have an effect, the researchers said.

The team said an antioxidant called flavanol was responsible for the effect because it neutralised potentially cell-damaging substances known as oxygen free radicals, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reported.

We would still recommend a balanced low fat, salt and sugar diet that includes starchy carbohydrates and plenty of fruit and vegetables Amanda Vezey, of Diabetes UK

But despite the benefits of dark chocolate, lead researcher Dr Claudio Ferri said people should be careful about chocolate consumption.

"Dark chocolate contains antioxidants, but also a lot of fat and calories.

"People who want to add some chocolate to their diet need to subtract an equivalents amount of calories by cutting back on other foods to avoid weight gain."

Writing in the journal, nutrition expert Cesar Fraga, of the University of California, said the findings on blood pressure seemed credible.

He said other foods containing flavanols, such as tea and wine, have a similar effect on blood pressure.

And he added: "The identification of healty foods and the understanding of how food components influence normal physiology will help improve the health of the population."

Diabetes UK care adviser Amanda Vezey pointed out it was a small study, but said it was still interesting.

"People with diabetes can eat dark chocolate like everyone else in moderation.

"However, we would still recommend a balanced low fat, salt and sugar diet that includes starchy carbohydrates and plenty of fruit and vegetables combined with regular exercise to help people with diabetes control their condition."

And Professor Graham MacGregor, chairman of the Blood Pressure Association, said more research was needed.

But he added: "The benefits of eating chocolate are likely to be outweighed by the disadvantages as chocolate is high in sugar and fat."

Maggot therapy hope 'premature'

There has been increasing interest in use of maggots in wound healing Maggots may not have the miracle healing properties that have been claimed, a UK study suggests. Researchers comparing maggots with a standard "hydrogel" in treating leg ulcers found little difference. Recent excitement over using maggots to speed up healing and even reduce MRSA infections in leg ulcers seems to have been premature, they said. The British Medical Journal study is the first to compare maggots with standard treatment. Leg ulcers can be very difficult to treat and after use of high-compression bandages only about half are healed within 16 weeks. One common treatment is to use a water-based gel to keep the wound moist and promote the natural healing process. Maggots, or larval therapy, are another option - but it can be more tricky to place them in the wound and they have to be specially ordered which takes a few days. The theory has been that maggots are effective because they "clean out" dead tissue - a process called debridement - stimulating healing and getting rid of bugs such as MRSA in the process. But although larval therapy is being used more and more, it has only been tested in one randomised controlled trial of 12 patients, the team said. Healing In the latest study, 270 patients with leg ulcers from around the UK were treated either with maggots or hydrogel and progress followed for up to a year. There was no significant difference in the time it took the ulcer to heal between the two treatments or in quality of life. Maggots were not more effective than hydrogel treatment at reducing the amount of bacteria present or in getting rid of MRSA and were, on average, associated with more pain. It comes down to the aim of treatment, if for some reason rapid debridement is important, then you would choose larval therapy Professor Nicky Cullum, study leader The only benefit seemed to be that the dead tissue in the wound was cleaned out more quickly A separate study looking at cost-effectiveness estimated there was little to choose between the two therapies. Study leader Professor Nicky Cullum, deputy head of health sciences at the University of York, said the resurgence in interest in using maggots had been "premature". "The ulcers treated with larval therapy did get cleaner - which is not surprising as they're an active debriding agent - but that rapid cleaning did not lead to rapid healing." She said it would be up to clinicians to decide which was the most appropriate for their patients, but in general there was no extra benefit from maggots over standard therapy. "It comes down to the aim of treatment. If for some reason rapid debridement is important, then you would choose larval therapy - for example if someone was having a skin graft. "This will help them make more informed decisions."

'Make hospitals admit error' call

BY Nick Triggle
Health reporter, BBC News

NHS trusts are encouraged to report incidents that put patients at risk

The system for hospitals to report errors in the care of patients should be mandatory, a patients' group says.

The Patients Association said that in the wake of the highly-critical report on Stafford Hospital, the time had come for the end to the voluntary system.

The National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) reporting system depends on NHS trusts owning up to mistakes.

Regulators have already said the health service is not doing enough in reporting patient safety incidents.

The NPSA has been collecting data since 2003 in a bid to help the heath service learn from its mistakes.

I think the Stafford report showed that it is time to get tough on this Michael Summers, of the Patients Association

In the first year, NHS trusts were only reporting just over 100 errors every three months, but that has now increased to 250,000.

However, despite the improvement the agency is still unable to compare trusts' performance because of suspicions of under-reporting.

On top of that, 32 of the 391 NHS organisations in England and Wales did not submit any incidents or enough to be included in the latest data.

The situation prompted the Healthcare Commission to call for an improvement from NHS trusts earlier this month.

And now the Patients Association says it is time to force the NHS to comply.

Michael Summers, of the Patients Association, said: "I think the Stafford report showed that it is time to get tough on this. Hospitals need to be forced to report mistakes if we are going to protect patients."

'Appalling'

On Tuesday, a report by the Healthcare Commission branded care at the Stafford Hospital "appalling".

It said there were deficiencies at "virtually every stage" of emergency care and managers pursued targets to the detriment of patient care.

The regulator said that between 2005 and 2008 there were 400 "excess" deaths at the hospital - although it was impossible to say whether these had all been caused by bad care.

Kevin Barron, chairman of the House of Commons Health Committee, which is currently carrying out an investigation into patient safety, said the issue of making reporting mandatory was on the agenda.

"We are still taking evidence so I don't want to say what should happen, but it is one of the things we are looking at."

A spokeswoman for the NPSA said it was not up to the agency to decide whether reporting should be made mandatory.

But she added: "I think, for a voluntary system, we have a successful system operating."